If you’ve been on social media over the past week, chances are you’ve seen a number of posts about the election.
That’s exactly what Randy Williams is seeing. She’s a folklore curator and oral history specialist at Utah State University. The day after the election she began inviting people who are sharing their thoughts on the election to send their thoughts to her so they can be archived for the future.
“My job as an oral historian, as a folklorist, working in an archive is to make sure we collect the voices of the people and help people maybe in the future understand what was happening at a certain point in time," Williams said.
With a 20-minute online survey, Williams is asking people to share their thoughts and feelings post-election. The survey also is designed to gather information and give context to people’s responses so historians, analysts and researchers can use the information in the future.
“You may have already posted this on Facebook. It may be just a cut and a paste. But help us explain some of this. So when someone comes upon it - someone who looks at this election in 15, 20, 30 years, or even four years - they have a sense of the kinds of people who were responding," Williams said.
Williams says many people have told her they’re grateful for the chance to have their voice be collected and preserved.
“But more I think is just this idea of a catharsis at the moment for them," Williams said.
It’s been more than a week after the election and 203 people have responded.